Work Text:
Cedar never saw the appeal in working himself to the bone just for a meager wage of seven dollars an hour. He thought it was stupid to stress himself so much for it, that doing what was required and just that would suffice.
He wished he hadn’t taken that for granted. Now here he was, sitting in a shitty office the size of a child's room and surrounded by paperwork. For zero pay.
What led him to this point? What did he really do to deserve this? He couldn’t help but think as one of the head proxies lobbed a large stack of paperwork onto his desk. It was Brian, he instantly recognized. The man was always the culprit, offering his job to Cedar on a platter as usual.
Cedar leaned away from the stack of paper, looking up at the man in the muted yellow hoodie with an unimpressed look.
“Let me guess; It’s completely unfinished and you haven’t even looked at it.” Cedar rattled off, already knowing the routine by now. His face remained stony even as Brian’s faltered, brown eyes suddenly looking everywhere around the room except for the person in front of him.
“I was busy.” Was all he could conjure as an excuse.
Cedar’s face barely changed, frown deepening slightly. There was a tiny bit of hope in him that he was wrong; Brian had done all of his work and was simply handing it in early.
Hope is nice.
“Busy doing what?” He asked, picking up the stack of papers and going through it.
To Brian’s small credit, the first few papers were actually done and filled in properly. Papers that were due a few weeks ago. Annoyance started to ebb at him as he checked through the whole stack. It was work ranging from weeks ago to now, the most recent sitting completely untouched.
Brian’s silence rang through the room. Cedar grit his teeth. The sound of his blue box fan filled the room for a few seconds before he leaned back and scratched his temple.
“You don’t do your work, so you aren’t busy with that.” He said matter-of-factly.
Cedar put down the stack of papers and scooted his chair away from the desk, crossing his arms with a quiet huff.
“I was busy.” Brian repeated firmly.
Cedar only looked at him, exasperated. “With what?”
Brian steeled himself, frown evident on his face.
“ With what ?” He paused before shaking his head. “Field missions, dumbass. I can’t do all of this paperwork and you know it.”
“If you knew how to manage your time, you would be able to. The other proxies can do it.” Cedar said, although immediately cringed afterwards.
He sounded like his mother. The idea left a disgusting taste in his mouth. He covered his mouth and closed his eyes. Always comparing, always worried, always stressed. That’s the only way he could describe the woman.
“Tim works his ass off all day in order to do field and this bullshit. Why don’t you just stop with it?” Brian gestured to the piles of papers surrounding Cedar. “Toby doesn’t even do them and you get on just fine.”
“I get on just fine because I have your accounts on the matter.” Cedar said, running his hand from his mouth and sliding it off his face entirely. “It’s to make sure everything is organized. Neat. You know how—”
He was cut off. “—Know how important organization is to the faction, yeah I know , Cedar.”
Living in a shithole apartment with three roommates was starting to sound more and more appealing.
He let out a quiet sigh.
“This is too much. I tell you every week but it’s like you add more to our load. It’s too much. ” Brian continued.
“It’s the same mission file I’ve given you since I started them.”
“They keep stacking up, Cedar. We get field missions one after the other, we don’t have the time for this stuff, we’re busy. ”
“Okay.”
A pause.
“What?” Brian’s voice came out shocked.
Cedar shrugged, running a hand through his hair. His fingers got stuck in the curls for a moment, he tugged them free.
“I said okay.”
The response clearly wasn’t expected, the man looking at him strangely with his mouth agape. Cedar stared up at him.
If it was going to get Brian to work and do his job, then sure, fine. Why not. It didn’t please him to cut down on the files that were already bare essentials, but Brian constantly complains and Toby doesn’t even do them, claiming they’re “too long.”
So fine.
He’ll rework them.
“They’ll be shorter and more streamlined. Cuts your workload down. Should be better.” Cedar relented.
A smile broke across Brians face. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Yeah sure. Just actually do them. This is the shortest I can make them.”
When Brian didn’t respond, Cedar felt that small bit of annoyance resurge again.
“If you don’t, they’ll go back. No remorse. I’m not doing them for you anymore.”
That garnered a reaction, an understanding yet eager nod. Brian shook out his arms with a small hum. “Yep, yeah, no problem. How fast can you do that?”
He raised an eyebrow, picking up the pile of unfinished documents. Sifting through them again and picking out the finished papers, he put them to the side. Dropping the unfinished papers and picking up the complete ones, he offered a tiny shrug.
“Your next mission is tomorrow. Probably by the time that one's finished.”
“Seriously?” Brian said before shutting up and letting out another nod.
Turning around and grabbing an empty mandala file from the file cabinet, he couldn’t help but feel resigned to his own fate. The mission reports really weren’t long, a few pages at most. The questions and information needed to be filled out depended on the mission itself. Each one was unique, detailed specifically for the mission at hand.
It made him more than a little upset to throw away those personalized reports, but if they requested it this much, then he’ll do it. He doesn’t have the energy to argue their importance. He barely has the energy to argue at all.
The blonde could already feel exhaustion weighing on his shoulders, eyes heavy and mood just a little more sour than usual.
He filed away the reports, completed and abandoned alike, and put them back in the cabinet behind him.
“Glad you could fix those sheets up so soon.” The hooded man behind him said.
“I’m used to it.” Cedar replied, closing his eyes for a moment too long. “You, as head proxies, are my first priority.”
The words made him want to smash his lamp on the ground. It was true, though. Head proxies were his first priority. They needed to be tended to, listened to. Even their stupidest requests were acted on, despite Cedar’s own issues with it.
Brian nodded awkwardly. “Right, yeah. Uh, hey seriously, thank you for doing this. We’ve been stressed out a lot, this definitely helps.”
“Anything for you.”
Even as Brian walked out of the room, it was obvious that he heard the thick sarcasm in the sentence. His shoulders spiked and his back straightened. The door was slammed shut, pictures and trinkets hung on the wall rattling with the force.
The blue box fan and the shuffling of papers were the only sounds heard in the room after that.